[INFO/How to:] Madden 21 MUT Solo Battles

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Tips and tricks: some thoughts on strategy to play a Solo Battle game

Your aggregated weekly score (and therefore your rewards) is mainly determined by the chosen difficulty level and whether you are able to win the Solo Battle games or not. If you struggle to win on a higher difficulty level, I’d suggest to reduce the difficulty level, in particular against those opponents with a high OVR. The top scores are of course only feasible if you are confident (and able) to beat your opponent on the highest difficulty level (“Legend”).

If you are not sure which difficulty level to choose, I’d suggest to do some calculations first. You have 13 games to maximise your score. The highest rewards tier requires a Solo Battle score of 250k+ (ranking top 100 requires 300k+ on PC and I’d guess even more on PS or xbox since the player base is larger there). It doesn't make much sense to take too big a risk with the difficulty level if you risk slightly missing a rewards tier (if you lose one or more games), but on the other hand have no chance of reaching an even higher rewards tier (if you win). Playing against low OVR teams first might be helpful in order to decide what difficulty level to chose for the strong opponents. For instance, if there are 2 games to play left and you are short of e.g. 20k score points in order to get to the next rewards tier, it is not necessary to chose a difficulty level higher than “All-Star”. Winning both games at All-Star difficulty you will get about 11k score points for each win and will easily manage to reach the next rewards tier. but if you lose one of the games at the next higher difficulty level, you may not make it there.

If you are not sure whether you can safely win all games at the highest difficulty level (“Legend”), I’d suggest to select “MVP” difficulty against the featured opponent. The difference between "MVP" and "Legend" in the guaranteed score is much smaller for the featured opponent compared to the community opponents. Therefore, reducing the risk (i.e. by decreasing the difficulty level) is much “cheaper” (2,200 score pointes) in the featured opponent game than in the 12 other games (7,840).

If you are less experienced in playing Madden and would like to improve your weekly Solo Battle performance, I’d suggest to primarily focus on 1) trying increasing the difficulty level while still safely winning the games, 2) trying to score more points (TDs, field goals), gain more yards and First Downs, 3) trying to allow less yards (and points) on defense. The skill score is less relevant at this stage since the big points cannot be reached through e.g. juke or spin moves.

Since the AI does not adjust its strategy depending what plays you are selecting, I recommend to focus on a small set of plays and formations (both on offense and defense). Unfortunately, every play is relevant for the Solo Battle score, either directly by increasing or decreasing your skill score (e.g. by adding some yards, first downs, etc. to your game stats) or indirectly by losing time you might miss afterwards in order to complete additional objectives (for the final game or skills score). If you focus on a small set of plays (and formations), you will be able to learn 1) which plays work well against which formations/plays of the AI, 2) how to read the defense, 3) how to avoid frustrating bugs/glitches, 4) how to avoid INTs, sacks etc. and of course you will become better in executing your plays. But be aware that this suggestion focuses on maximising your Solo Battle score! It does not necessarily increase the fun of playing the game too since your game(s) will become more monotonous than using a broader range of plays and/or formations.

If you are confident to score a TD on every offensive drive (no matter where the drive starts) and you are able to safely score 50+ points per game, I recommend to try to start your drives at your own 5-10 yard line (depending on how confident you are not allowing a sack/safety on your first plays of the drive). Doing that allows you gaining more yards and First Downs per drive (and therefore helps increasing your skill score). Since PR and KR yards as well as yards after a turnover do not matter for the Solo Battle score I’d suggest to try running backwards your own 5-10 yard line (or give up your play there if you receive the ball in or closer to your own endzone).

In order to verify that you score 50+ points (or as much as possible) in your games, I strongly recommend to go for 2 instead of kicking the field goal for the extra point. I suggest to do some practice to find out what play(s) fit your playstyle and safely work in most cases. Since the AI always lines up in goalline formation, the AI is very predictable and can be beaten relatively easily after finding and practicing your preferred play (the same holds for all plays starting closer than 3 yards to the endzone). For instance, outside runs (maybe with some blocking adjustments) or bubble screens are among the concepts that work quite well in these situations.

On defense, I recommend to use a man coverage blitz play and adjust your lineup accordingly. Man coverage is very strong if you have fast CBs (and safeties) who are strong in man coverage (and pressing). If one (or both) of your safeties are aligned in man coverage (e.g. in Cover 1 Man or Cover 0 blitzes), it might be fruitful to substitute them with CBs (if you have enough fast CBs with high skills in man coverage). In addition, you might consider substituting the blitzing players by your best and fastest pass rushers in order to increase your chances to sack the QB. Please be aware that using a man coverage blitz goes hand in hand with taking risks too! If you do a all-in blitz and your DBs are beaten, you might give up very long TDs too from time to time. Furthermore, using man coverage requires having fast DBs who are also good at man coverage (and/or press).

If you struggle on defense  (i.e. if you did not yet find your strategy to stop the AI), it is better to allow a one-play-drive TD (or even a KR TD) than allowing a very long drive resulting in a TD anyways. Long drives on defense cost a lot of time, which you then lack to score points, yards, first downs, etc. If you are able to score on all of your drives and are able to convert more than 50% of your 2-Point-Conversions, you will always win the game (at least if you do not allow your opponent to score a TD on every drive and allow him to score at the end of both halfs).

Another approach in order to minimise the damage of struggling on defense might be to focus on very long offensive drives (e.g. by giving up your plays after short yardage and chewing the clock). It is sometimes better to win e.g. 14-0 without allowing any yardage on defense than winning 63-56 (due to the deductions in the Solo Battle score of allowing yards and points).

A very important factor, especially for the skill score, is clock management. It is always good to get the last score in a half. Furthermore, as soon as you are able to score on every drive and easily stop your opponent, you will have to learn how to save time in order to be able to do as much offensive plays as possible. In order to achieve 25 First Downs, 300 passing yards, 200 rushing yards while scoring 50+ points, you have to find your strategy to minimise the loss of time per play and between plays (you only have 12 minutes per game to achieve all of these stats!). In particular, you should focus on achieving either a First Down (in best case out of bounds: this stops the clock, in particular in the 4th quarter and the ultimate 2 minutes of the 1st half) or a TD on every single offensive play, stop your opponent’s offense as soon as possible (e.g. by a turnover or at least by a 3-and-out), use your timeouts strategically, etc.

Whatever happens during the game, do not panic! I know from my own experience that a lot can go wrong during a Solo Battle game. Sometimes you may make mistakes, sometimes there occurs a weird animation or bug, sometimes you are just unlucky. I strongly recommend to pause the game for a second if you feel anger or frustration just because something went wrong. Every play potentially counts for the Solo Battle score. If something already went wrong, you cannot change it anymore but you can avoid that it gets even worse just because you are angry or unconcentrated. Try to calm down again during the break, try to accept it and focus on the next play! It's just a game!   

Finally, please do not use / exploit glitch plays in order to trick the AI! First, as long as glitch plays are exploited, competition (i.e. the top 100 leaderboard) is extremely skewed in favor of those players who actively seek (or accidentally stumble upon) these plays. I would not mind if players use glitch plays as long as other players are not affected (why should it bother me if these players deprive themselves of the fun of the game by using these stupid glitches?). But each player who ranks top 100 because he is using any of these glitch plays steals from another player (who is playing straight) the chance to get the rewards for a top 100 rank. If you become aware of glitch plays how to trick the AI, please report them in the Bug Reports forum (Madden NFL 21 | Forum | Bug Reports | EA Answers HQ | EN). Any bug or glitch play the development team becomes aware of and is able to fix will increase the fun and fairness of this mode for all players. Furthermore, players who overuse glitch plays in order to cheat in Solo Battles also run the risk of being subsequently banned from playing MUT once the exploited glitch play comes to the attention of the development team!

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